The Black Adept rewrite
by River of the Emerald Dawn
Summary: revamp of my YAHF Xander as Urtho book YAHF. Xander dresses up as a legendary Mage from the time of the Mage Wars what happens if the Hellmouth reacts to the left over powers of the Mage of Silence? maybe Slash or no rel at all
1. Chapter 1

**The Black Adept**

**Chapter 1: The Beginning**

_Disclaimer: All recognizable elements of this story are the property of their respective owners and they own all rights and responsibilities thereof. Velgarth series belongs to Mercedes R. Lackey and her husband Larry Dixon while Joss Whedon (I think not sure don't really care) owns BTVS the plot and some characters belong to me or were adapted by me for no monetary gain. So suing my broke ass will get you exactly the amount of money in my vaults… Not a damn thing… Have fun with that._

Alex watched quietly as a young brown-haired man walked into the double doors down the hall from the corner he was hiding behind his thoughts turning wistful as he remembered days when he had been as innocent as that young man.

"Wishing you had never left?" His partner asked from just behind him as a chalk pale hand reached up to stroke his equally pale neck.

"No, just missing my lost innocence, it is hard to believe that young man used to be me. The way he acts…" he shook his head slightly glowing silver-white hair falling in front of his ice-blue eyes.

"You never did explain how all this started." His lover prompted gently.

"Hmmm, no, I suppose it was the one subject I never allowed questions on; Even after all this time it was hard to remember what I lost that day." A sad frown briefly crossed his face disappearing as fast as it had come his calm mask falling back into place.

"Could you not have stopped it from happening? You are back after all surely there was something you could have changed to alter events." Daven said quietly his mood not as well hidden as his partners.

"Either of us could have, really, I just didn't want to. There is nothing that I gave up here that I would miss more then I would regret never meeting you; Even if you were a brooding little shit when I found you." Alex replied his mischievous expression hidden from the man behind him as he pretended to study the Sunnydale High School Library doors intently.

Deciding to start the story before the man had a chance to respond the man stepped forward and turned ignoring his former students gaping mouth. "It started for me almost 10 millennia ago, so long that the historians of this time who believe they have made an accurate history of this world have found no evidence of anything interesting that happened, the last legends of it being the ancient stories of long lost Druids. Though it has been nearly 10,000 years for me it all really started yesterday, on Halloween a day our Principal forced my friends and I into 'volunteering' to babysitting some kids as they went door to door trick or treating. I had been planning to go as a soldier using some old military fatigues I found in my basement; when I went back down to the basement before going to meet my friends the day before Halloween I found that the basement had been cleaned out and everything my parents didn't need was thrown out, including the fatigues. I ended up going down to a new costume shop into town, Ethan's Costume Emporium. It took me hours in that store trying to find something I could afford and wouldn't be embarrassed to wear out of the house."

The young brown haired boy had almost fallen into despair, the store would be closing for the last time in an hour and he still hadn't managed to find a costume to wear everything he could see was just some generic junk that he wouldn't wear or couldn't afford in a million years.

Finally his warm brown eyes landed on something that had promise: a long black robe and silver white wig. He quickly grabbed both his mind flashing back to one of his favorite book series: The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. It had been the first sci-fi/Fantasy books he had ever read and remained one of his favorites to this day and he was determined to dress up as one of the characters he felt hadn't had enough time in the books, Urtho the Mage of Silence.

(The Next Night) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Knocking on the door in front of him Xander Harris grinned as it opened showing the mother of his blonde friend. "Hey, Mrs. Summers!" He exclaimed happily grinning at her, his mother figure though he would never tell her that to her face.

"Hello, Xander." Joyce said with a smile as she took in his costume, "Who did you dress up as?"

Xander smiled at the curious tone, most people who thought they knew him would have assumed he had just dressed up as a generic wizard or something geeky, but Joyce had always seemed to be able to see him no matter how many masks or walls he threw up in front of her.

"Urtho, He's from a series of books I love though he's not from my favorite book he is one of my favorite characters they call him the Mage of Silence and he's one of the most powerful Mage's in the story. He was so cool he even made living intelligent creatures like the Gryphon's but he died really early in the book."

She responded with a grin as she heard her daughter come stomping down the stairs like a herd of elephants. "That's wonderful Xander, I'm glad you found a costume you really like." Joyce said just before Buffy reached them.

Pulling his mask up as he noticed the blonde he put on a fake smile and said. "Buffy, Duchess of Buffonia, I totally reject spandex!" he exclaimed loudly a silly grin hiding his pain. He noticed Joyce giving him a sad smile from behind her daughter and his grin turned slightly more real as he met her eyes.

"Xander!" the blonde said happily. "Wait till you see Willow!" she excitedly looked back up stairs ignoring his costume assuming he had just grabbed whatever he could afford. Which as she knew from Willow wasn't much. She smiled seeing the red head's shoes at the top of the stairs. "I got her to dress as a," Her face fell in disappointment staring at her best female friend as she came fully into view the costume Buffy had spent hours trying to convince her to wear now covered with a white sheet with the word 'Boo!' across it in those letters costume people believe is somehow creepy like dripping blood. "… Ghost!"

Just barely managing not to laugh in the blonde's face, he knew what had happened of course he had tried it for years before giving up. "Nice 'Boo!' you got there, Wills." He exclaimed happily his voice slightly more strained then it had been with Buffy.

"Xander!" Willow exclaimed happily. "Nice Wizard costume! Were you going for Dumbledore?" She asked excitedly before turning to Buffy and falling into a conversation with her about Angel again not even waiting for an answer.

Xander saw Joyce wince slightly as the girls ignored him and started on their way to the school knowing he would follow them. She mouthed sorry to him as he turned to run and catch up with them as he just shrugged at her. His friends had been growing further and further away from him as time had gone by. It hadn't taken him long to notice and he was wondering when he would just give up on being their friend; It was like he was the only one trying anymore.

It had begun when Buffy first came into their lives slowly at first and just started happening more and more when Willow had started to practice little magic's with the help of Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher. The two of them started seeing him as the normal one that needed to be protected and he knew that it wouldn't be long now before they decided to kick him out of the group… for his own safety, of course.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (Later) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Urtho looked around himself wondering where he was his last memory of the flash of his Ward's as he died after being betrayed by Conn Levas. Feeling something behind him he didn't even turn as with a twitch of his will a physical shield sprang up dome-like between himself and the creature before an egg shaped capture-shield closed over the creature. He finally turned around his mage-sight blazing as he studied the spell that was wrapped around the creature his powerful mind-magic quickly finding two minds in one body.

A twitch of his finger at the creature sent a burst of magic that snapped the spell on the creature and it fell to the ground sobbing in fright now back in the shape of a small boy. Urtho quickly bent down dispelling the prison dome as he called it and wrapping his arms around the boy in comfort as a slight flexing of his will had another dome-like shield surrounding the two of them to keep others away.

He heard a voice that was somehow familiar and filled his hosts mind with sadness shout, "Xander!" and looked up as the girl ran up to him his mage-sight still on from earlier took in the spirit and he shook his head. Trying to break the spell on her would kill the girl something he was reluctant to do, he would have to go find her body or try another way and he figured the fastest way would be to find the mage responsible and kill him or her.

He ignored the girls babbling as he turned his attention inward noting distantly that the girl walked through the physical shield as if it wasn't even there, indeed she didn't seem to be aware of it. Maybe it had something to do with the dead, he shrugged, while he was one of the best at magic he would be the first to admit he was in over his head. _:?: _he poked at the sleeping presence in his mind that he had identified as the owner of his current body.

_:Ngh.: _was the sleepy reply as the mind stirred before turning its attention to him. _:Where am I? What's going on?:_ the boy asked trying to look around in what he interpreted as a black void.

_:You are trapped in your mind, Little One.: _Urtho mind-spoke softly trying to calm the boy down. _:My name is Urtho and I seem to be possessing your body can you think of how that would have happened?: _

_:Urtho?: _Xander exclaimed half-scared, half- jumping-in-joy excited. _:THE Urtho? The Mage of Silence?"_

Urtho gave a bemused mental nod. _:That is what my people called me yes, Now do you know what's going on?:_

_:How should I know? One minute I was escorting some kids around town while they were trick-or-treating the next minute I see a glowing wall flowing at me from the other end of the street turn to run and then… blackness as the wall rushed over me. It had been moving too fast for me to get out of the way.:_

_:Trick-or-treating?: _Urtho asked confusion flavoring his mind-voice his blank eyes not catching the spirit waving her arms about in front of his face.

_:It's a custom, every year on Halloween all the kids dress up in costumes and go door-to-door asking for candy.: _Xander said shrugging so used to the idea it almost didn't occur to him that the mage wouldn't know about it. _:Err, sweets I guess you would call them.:_

_:And you dressed up as me?: _Urtho asked patiently.

_:Yup, I got the costume at a new shop in town called Ethan's yesterday.: _The boy said with a mental nod trying to give the mage any relevant information.

Breaking his concentration the mage turned his Sight on the robe he was wearing and grimaced at the complex lines that seemed to twist the eye and roll the stomach. Slipping back into the link with the boy the Mage gave a mental sigh. _:It is the costume that holds the spell.: _He told him simply.

Xander merely gave a mental shrug his experiences with the supernatural having already numbed him to surprises. _:Figures.: _he mind-sent softly before thinking for a moment and sending the directions to the shop to the man's mind.

Startled Urtho sat back on his heels blinking bemusedly at the light of one of the streetlamps wondering how the boy had figured out how to transfer memories through mind-speech… either the boy was powerful and intuitive, lucky, or he was somehow tapping into his own memories on how to use his power. Shaking his head in wonder the ancient mage climbed easily to his feet silently marveling at being able to stand so quickly and painlessly. Never forget he had been old when he died and powerful Great Adept or not achy knees was a normal part of aging even then.

Still ignoring the red headed banshee that was now screaming something about a 'Buffy' interspersed sometimes with the word 'Slayer' not that either of the two meant anything thing to the mage, he turned his attention to the boy and smiled gently into the slightly red eyes. "I need to go find the bad man that caused all this. Would you like to come with me or would you prefer I get you home first?" The man asked the kid calmly drawing on his limited experience with the kids of the Kaled'a'in.

Watching his lip quirking as the now calm kid tried to decide between going home and being safe with his mommy or going on an adventure with the nice old man that could obviously protect him with his cool glowy walls. He was young and saw nothing wrong with magic not knowing that to an adult magic doesn't exist.

"I wanna go home, Mister, Mommy is probably worried." The kid nodded to himself proud of his conclusion before grabbing the man's hand and pulling him in the direction he knew his house was in, watching in awe as the cool glowy wall moved ahead of them knocking more scary creatures away before they had the chance to attack them.

Urtho shrugged slightly watching the red ghost as she darted out of the shield once again somehow without noticing it… maybe the chaos spell on her was dulling her senses? Or preventing her from seeing it on the chance that it caught someone like him who could see magic naturally… but wouldn't that prevent him from seeing the spell too? Maybe it only worked on the host part of the personality or the spells on other and you couldn't see the one on yourself. He shrugged as the red head called out for help and the little boy turned guiding him towards the ghost-girl.

Seeing her hovering around the unconscious form of a young girl in a horrendous maroon dress he rolled his eyes as the little boy obviously pretending to be a hero or knight ran up to the lady and shook her.

She woke up, saw his shield, and fainted all within the space of a second leaving the two males nearby blinking in confusion. "Well that was productive," Urtho helpfully chirped and paused to wonder how much his host's personality was effecting his own emotions though he could feel the boy in the back of his mind mind-voice tinged in a crisp apple feeling of laughter.

"Is she afraid of the glowy wall, mister?" the little kid asked hesitantly, looking up into his eyes.

"Possibly," he said with a proud smile for the smart boy and a shrug for the subject not really caring. The protection of the boy was more important then the fainting Court Lady dress alike. He remembered girls like this from his own Court and wasn't really bothered with what the girl wanted.

"What 'glowy wall'?" Willow asked suddenly staring at the boy wondering if he was seeing things.

"The wall that has been keeping the bad people away from us, duh." The kid said like only a kid talking to what he thinks is a stupid grown up can do.

"Now Jonathon, they aren't bad people they have the same spell on them that you did, and it's not her fault she isn't able to see the shield. Not everybody believes in magic." Urtho said patronizingly, ignoring the spluttering of the girl.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (Later, Outside the Costume Shop) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After dropping off the boy who he had finally learned was named Jonathon, he had made his way as quickly as he could to where the information his host had given him told him the costume shop was flicking a finger out every few seconds to break the spell on yet another costumed kid though he never stopped walking to comfort the ones he broke out, being more concerned with getting to the shop as quickly as possible and ending this spell.

Arriving outside the front of the shop Urtho looked up and down the street to see if anyone was guarding it. Not seeing anything at first he moved quickly to go into the shop before freezing and looking down the street towards an alley where his mage-sight had crossed over a strange reading like a small red demon surround in pulsing violet light in the shape of a human body.

It wasn't the spell that was on everyone else, he had seen it and broke it now often enough that he could find that one with his eyes closed. Watching the alley curiously waiting for whatever was in there to come out he sent a scathing glance at the two girls that were still following him who he had been told by his host were his friends. He really couldn't see what the boy saw in them/.

Granted the brunette was still under the spell having refused to let him use his magic's on her but as far as he could tell the bossy red head's attitude hadn't been changed by the spell and he was getting more then tired of her trying to order him around. Him who was a powerful Adept class mage and lead and army against an equally powerful mage and this little slip of a girl wanted him to do everything she said assuming that she was smarter then him.

Shaking himself out of his fit of temper her smiled as the aura he was watching seemed to get bored with the boy staring at it and came out into the open, revealing it to be a platinum blonde haired individual with a grin that promised pain to anyone he happened to get under his power for any length of time.

"Spike!" The red head yelled shrilly at the man before looking around for an escape forgetting for the moment that she could move through walls and the vampire wouldn't be able to touch her. "What are you doing out tonight! Giles said the supernatural took the night off."

"Well Red, I was out on a stroll admiring all the wonderful chaos going on around town when I heard this annoying voice yelling about how the Slayer was powerless for the night and I just had to come see and grab me a triple hitter all in one. Gotta admire the work of someone who can cause this amount of chaos and weaken the Slayer all in one go." The blonde said with a vicious grin.

"Hmm, you are right the spell is complex and one that would take a great deal of skill to weave normally but that Mage who did this isn't very good at what he does all things considered." Urtho said calmly his head cocked to the side as he listened to his host relating the information on this creature to him. "So you are one of those Vampires my host has been kind enough to tell me about… don't seem that strong to me. I have created creatures that would take you out with a single bite."

Flushing in anger the vampire took a couple of steps closer before stopping his nose going up like a dog sniffing the air. He sneezed suddenly and looked at the boy a little closer recognizing the look of the boy he had always assumed to be the Slayers pet human. "Looks like Droopy got an upgrade." He said absentmindedly before turning and leaving with a look of barely concealed fear over his shoulder at the boy who was obviously too powerful for him to kill. He really should have listened when Dru told him to avoid her Black Kitten.

Turning back to the shop glad he had managed to catch a glimpse of one of the vampires his host had told him about, he staggered for a second as his powers seemed to swell and then settle he groaned lightly leaning against the front wall wondering what was going on before straightening himself and walking in through the front door ignoring the jingle of the shop bell as he looked around at the few left over costumes before turning on his mage-sight and looking around for the focus of the spell.

His Sight passed over the costumes ignoring the glow of the spell still shining on them though they were unworn and moved further into the shop where he could see the focus behind a curtain to what he assumed was the back of the shop.

Slowly pulling the curtain aside he peeked into the room watching a small oddly dressed man as he paced in front of a statue with glowing green eyes seeming to be waiting for someone. Maybe he did this to catch someone's attention… or ire.

Urtho walked confidently into the room the man was barely a Journeyman and Urtho was more then happy to give the man ire if that was what he was looking for he had been looking forward to the Havens, he was old enough that he wasn't afraid of death any longer and he had been hoping to meet the Shadow Lover who was said to be the most beautiful person you could imagine, male or female depending on preferences.

The slightly graying man looked up in confusion not really recognizing the costume though the silvery hair seemed familiar somehow he figured it was a minor concern as he shrugged to himself. Must be some kind of chaos wizard coming to see what was going on. "Welcome, welcome! Another one of my creations comes to see me have you come to admire the skill of this spell like that last one?"

"Not quite," Urtho said quietly his power flashing out to bind the man in place as he circled slowly around the statue the man had been pacing in front of. "The spell was actually well weaved and quite complex, which would have been admirable except for two things, Mr. Rayne."

"W-w-What two things?" the man asked sweating as the feeling of power in the room started to escalate and Urtho shook his head he hadn't even bothered to tap into the strange node he could feel not far from here and the man already couldn't stand the weight of his power it was truly pathetic what the worlds mages had fallen to.

"One you did not weave the spell you called upon one of your so called Gods to do that for you only contributing the costumes and a bit of power, and two you called upon me on my way to eternal rest and I am really not happy with that." Urtho smiled menacingly. He may have been a genuine nice guy in the war with Ma'ar which of course wasn't hard to be when the man enjoyed Blood Magic so much but even he could admit to being a slight bit more bloodthirsty than was truly healthy for those around him when he was wronged.

Tossing a levinbolt at the cowering man he turned his attention back to the statue the girl in the background screaming something about not killing humans and souls. Truly It mattered not to him if the man had a soul it didn't excuse the man of the deaths he had seen on the way here people he had been too late to save by the time he got to them they were already gone.

Cocking his head at the statue and studying the magic inside of it he could tell the only way to break it without side effects to the innocents was to break the statue. That left him with two options, he could break it by hand and the side effects to his host would be nothing more then had already happened (the awakening of his dormant gifts), or he could break it with magic and the side effects would be slightly more beneficial (the boy would keep his memories and have a way to train those awakened gifts.

With a nod the ancient Adept raised a hand tossing the most powerful Levin bolt he could muster shattering the statue to a million pieces before the world went black and he knew no more.

**A/N: Alright done with the first chapter. Tell me what you think of it. I'm not really good at updating but I will do my best to get it out in a reasonable amount of time and telling me if it's good or bad would bring that faster since my main problem is I always find something wrong with everything I write lol. The first part of the chapter will be explained in time so asking about that will make me laugh in your face! :P**

**The Black Adept**

**Chapter 2: Changing Circumstances**

_Disclaimer: Check Chapter 1 however I will make a point to say I went and played with the creative commons license so no suing me :P_

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (The Next Day) _

Xander groaned as he dragged himself slowly out of his lumpy bed eyes blinking sleepily at the strange glowing colors he could see in his unfocused gaze before he stumbled tripping slightly every so often until he made his way down the hall, into the bathroom. Turning on the warm water Xander stripped and stepped under the spray groaning in relief as the water massaged his sore muscles.

He could remember everything that happened the night before from the moment when Urtho had woken him and couldn't figure out what had made him so sore, but whatever it was he was blessing the gods that had invented the warm shower as it relaxed his muscles.

Turning off the shower Xander stepped in from of the mirror for the first time that day nearly fell over backwards looking into the ice-blue eyes that had replaced his own warm brown orbs. Finishing his morning ablutions quickly he stumbled into his clothes for the day and grabbed his backpack before rushing out the door without a word to his parents.

Running down the street as fast as he could the only thought in his mind getting Giles to fix whatever was going on with his eyes. Though he wouldn't mind going through life with the eyes of one of his heroes it would be more then a little uncomfortable to try and explain to his teachers and parents how he went to school one day with brown eyes and came back with blue.

It wasn't even like he could say he got colored contacts as he had tried that once before and he could never get his eyes from as dark as his were naturally to as light as they were now with contacts and though some would be stupid enough to fall for it most wouldn't. Not to mention the whole problem of how he was just now awake enough to notice a glowing dome that looked like it surrounded the whole town along with the other points of light shining in various points under ground.

Running into the front door of the school lights dancing in his eyes Xander clenched his eyes shut running blindly through the halls in an attempt to block out the intense lights that seemed to be everywhere as soon as he passed the front door.

"Giles! You gotta help me!" He called as soon as he entered the library opening his eyes and skidding to stop by the table staring in horror at a point between his feet.

Under him he could see what his new memories identified as a node, one that was strangely tied to a rock somewhere below the library.

As strange as that was, it wasn't what caused him to freeze. The node-energy was tainted. With a normal node it is hard to assign a color to the energy and most generally agree it is white-ish in a way. This node was tinged with pink it was something that Urtho had only seen once, on a node that was just below where some crazy mage in Ma'ars army had summoned several high level demons planning to set them loose on the Kaled'a'in.

Urtho had studied that effect after the Gryphons had finished off the demons and had come to the conclusion that because demons came from a dimension highly saturated with corrupted magic's anytime more then 3 were summoned atop a node it would be tainted until an adept with the right combination of Gifts could be called out to cleanse it.

"Xander!" He heard shouted in his ear and jumped looking up at the older man trying to shake the thoughts out of his head. "Finally!" the older man exclaimed exasperated. "I've been calling you for the last five minutes."

"Sorry, Giles, I got distracted." Xander said shaking his head once more trying to think of how to explain what was going on. His head so full of thoughts he missed as the node below him looked like it started to boil. Finally thinking he had it he turned his attention back to the increasingly impatient older man and gave one of his trademark goofy smiles. "How much has Buffy and Willow told you about what happened last night?"

Pulling his glasses off Giles started to slowly polish them with a cloth he pulled out of his breast pocket look as confused as the stoic Brit ever had as far as the boy knew. "I haven't had a chance to talk to the girls yet today. Why? What happened last night?"

After sitting down at the table next to him Xander explained what had happened as far as he knew inwardly shuddering at the memory of not being able to control his own body. "I woke up this morning and my eyes are blue, I'm remembering most of Urtho's life and though I didn't notice it at first I'm seeing lights that the memories identify and the HellMouth is really starting to freak me out." Xander finished as calmly as he could.

Giles head snapped up at the last point and he stared at Xander worried about what could have happened with the HellMouth the rest of his sentence deemed unimportant in the face of something this important. "What-" he started to ask before stopping at the panicked look on the teen's face.

Xander for his part screamed, "Run Giles!" his eyes glued to the floor of the library in the exact spot where Giles knew the HellMouth was, He started to protest before he saw Xander raise a hand and an invisible force picked him up and threw him bodily out into the hall. The next thing he saw was a pick tinged flash of light and he covered his eyes in pain.

As Xander was telling the story to Giles his eyes glued on the floor not wanting to see his mentors face in case he didn't approve of something that happened the night before and staring at the HellMouth, something seemed to be happening with it but for all he knew it was normal. It was different even to the nodes that Urtho was used to, oh the energy was the same but the feel of it was calmer not something that he associated with node energy.

Watching in mild interest as the energy seemed to be boiling beneath the surface he wondered idly what was going on but wasn't really concerned with it. Not until it boiled over and started heading straight for him. He screamed for Giles to get out and seeing him not moving threw his hand out an instinctive reaction from his memories of Urtho and watched dumbstruck as the Watcher went flying as Xander froze staring at his hand.

Looking down the teen screamed as the energy finally rushed out and engulfed him tearing a scream of pain from his throat. His focus narrowed as he was overwhelmed by the burning pain of the energy around him his last sight the all encompassing blackness of the void as he was carried on by a white hot current of energy every second making his hair and skin paler.

He didn't know how long it lasted, days, months, weeks, or seconds before he passed out his mind retreating from the feeling of a wave of slightly different energy slamming into his body rocking him and suddenly he fell to the ground parts of the energy swirling around him and in him changing him in ways that he would never know.

(Next Day)

Xander groaned coming slowly into the land of the living every cell of his body aching as he blinked at the forest that surrounded him recognizing it and dearly wishing he didn't. It was a forest that Urtho had explored when he was young when he had traveled wandering over a good portion of the world. It was also about as far from Sunnydale 1996 as you could get and he had no idea how he had gotten there the last thing he remembered was the strange node boiling over and a flash of pink light and then immense pain and the blackness of the void .

Pulling himself over to a tree and propping himself up against it he leaned back enjoying not having to carry his weight on his aching arms for a moment before taking a closer look and groaning again. This was definitely not good. He was alone in a forest that wasn't supposed to exist with no supplies and as far as his city-bred senses could tell no one around for miles and he could barely support himself let alone move.

Letting out another louder groan the boy thumped his head against the tree behind himself trying to shake loose some thoughts on how to save himself.

"Hey what are you doing? You'll hurt yourself even more if you keep that up." A gruff voice said off to his left causing the teen to jump and stare at the man wondering where he had come from. He was pretty sure the man hadn't been there before. "What are you doing out here alone in the woods." The strangely garbed man asked staring at him. "Mage's don't come out to these parts much."

'_Mage?_' Xander wondered to himself having not noticed his new features. His mind flashing back to him throwing Giles just before he disappeared he shrugged mentally wondering how much of Urtho he had retained before turning his attention back to the man in front of him. "I'm not sure, Goodman, the last thing I remember is a flash of light and then blackness. I woke up here a quarter mark ago." The boy told the man trying to remember how they had measured time in the books.

The man nodded accepting that, after all, everyone knows Mages are always getting into some weird stuff and causing trouble. He walked up to the boy slowly trying not to frighten him into throwing any magic at him. "Well lets get you to Mother Reader, our herb-witch, see what she can do for ye lad."

Xander nodded his long hair moving in front of his eyes. He pushed it absently behind his ear before he froze hand halfway back to his lap; Quickly grabbing his hair hard enough to hurt he brought it back in front of his face before dropping it and staring off into the forest.

His hair was a very familiar silvery white and longer than it should have been having been not much past his ears the night before and now going well passed his waist.

Xander passively sat in the man's arms his mind refusing to accept what was around him any longer. Sure landing somewhere he remembered from a set of supposedly fictional memories was something so much bigger than the length and color of his hair but just one thing on top of another and he wasn't sure how many more shocks he could take.

Hearing the laughter of children the teen looked up and saw the trees ending in front of him leading to the gentle slope of one side of a large valley a village nestled comfortably in the middle of it not taking up more then a bit of the middle leaving room for expansion over the years to come. After seeing the village and staring a bit Xander sat back in the man's arms his moving around almost knocking him off balance while Xander stared off into space his mind racing over his memories of Urtho's life as well as what he could remember of the books.

A memory flashed in front of his mind's eye and the boy's eyes went wide as he connected the dots:

_Under him he could see what his new memories identified as a node, one that was strangely tied to a rock somewhere below the library. _

A Heartstone! Why didn't he think of that sooner! Though to be honest his mind wasn't really working all that well at the time it would explain so much about the HellMouth. According to what he remembered from the book Heartstones were tempermental and had a mind of their own developing a personality slowly over the years. This one must have been thousands of years old and the oldest he had ever heard about was the Haven Heartstone which had to have been about 700 years old; it was said to be the most powerful and self-aware of the existing Heartstones.

Xander looked up startled as the man from the forest set him down on a hard wooden table having not noticed when they entered the village his mind racing over the possibilities. How would a Heartstone a supposedly fictional entity have come to be under Sunnydale tainted as it was? Where the hell was he and why? What was the name of the man who carried him out of the forest? Why didn't he eat breakfast that morning and who could he con into giving him something to eat? You know all the important stuff.

"Well, Graff, what are you bringing me this time?" Xander heard a slightly gravelly yet strangely feminine voice say before an older woman with naturally grey hair came into his line of sight. "Ever since you were younger then your own grandson you been bringing me stray's you find out in them woods. Though I must admit that this is the first time you have brought me a Mage let alone one so powerful. And what about you, young Mage, have you brought trouble to my humble home?"

Xander sat up carefully his limbs still tingling with exaustion before giving as much of a bow as he could awkward as it was. "I apologize, Madam, one of my experiments got away with me and I somehow ended up in the woods not far from here. This Goodman, Graff did you say his name was? Was kind enough to carry me here."

The boy was startled to hear a slapping sound and looked up from where he had been studying the paleness of his skin to see the man who had found him clutching the back of his head as the old woman slowly lowered the stick he hadn't seen her holding a second ago.

"Don't even bother to introduce yourself before picking strange people up off the forest floor and carrying them off!" Mother Reader grumbled throwing the man a glare before turning her attention back to the boy on her table.

"Well, well, young one what have you done to yourself?" the old woman asked semi-rhetorically, not really expecting an answer.

"I was researching Portals and nodes madam," the boy responded shocking her speechless Mage's of this ones caliber rarely wasted their time telling one of hers what went wrong with their experiments. "I had heard of a Mage who managed to create a permanent Portal by tying it into a node thereby giving it a power source to draw on. I had just started setting the last pattern of the spell into place to create a working model when some fool barged into my workroom." Xander lied easily mimicking the reactions he would have it was true. It actually had happened to Urtho who had forgotten to lock his workroom. Luckily everything had been shielded so the resulting explosion from his loss of concentration had been contained.

"I do not think there is anything I can do to help you, young Adept, there are no wounds on your body though I doubt you looked like you do now before whatever happened." The herb-witch muttered lowly studying the boy's features. He had the long silvery-white hair all the Adept's she had ever seen had blue-ish white eyes and almost transparent slightly glowing skin.

"No," the boy said lowly looking down at his now long fingered hand. "It is true I doubt I do look the same as I did yesterday... whenever and wherever that happened to be."

The village man shook his head slightly as the old woman nodded knowingly "_Mages," _he thought, "_no matter what age they are they are still the strangest people around."_

**The Black Adept**

**Chapter 3: Time Passes and Heartstones**

_Disclaimer: See chapter one nothing has changed since then… I still don't own either storyline and my vaults are still echoing._

Alex wrote one last word in his latest journal before sitting back in his chair eyes staring blankly around his office. Once he had figured out that he was stuck here he had, with help and encouragement from the townsfolk and Mother Reader, decided to stay in the town of Clear Valley. Every town big or small would kill to get a single powerful Mage to watch over them and Alex after four years of training was able to get his own skills and powers back to what they were on Halloween with a lot of hard work. It was rare for a Great Adept to bother with already established towns preferring to set up a tower somewhere isolated and tinker with their Magic, well the ones not bent on ruling the world or stopping those that were bent on such a thing. Personally Alex didn't really care who ruled outside his Clear Valley and had spent the last six years working on ways to protect the valley it resided in.

Since he had managed to get back to the right level Alex had been delving the depths of his mind for everything he could remember on the nature of nodes and Heartstones when he had exhausted both Urtho's knowledge and everything he could remember from the books that described some part of either he had locked himself in the Tower he built as his Adept test, it looked like a large crystalline spire etched with a stylized Black Dragon. It sparkled with an eldritch light that Alex had told the townspeople that it was just an effect he liked, it was doubtful even Mother Reader knew the whole truth though she probably knew it was more then he said. In truth he had spun as many spells into every crystalline inch of the Tower as he could for as many purposes as he could think of.

His studies of the nodes that made up the large web of magic he could see all around him had shown him some fascinating things about the differences between an Adept of after the Cataclysm and the Great Adepts of this time. Of course a lot of it is the training, but it seems that just as much knowledge as had been lost during the Cataclysm on the intricacies of working magic from what he could tell the work of the Tayledras to tame the magic of the world had bunched it together. Magic today was spread in what looked like a giant web of nodes and ley-lines all connected allowing feats of magic simply not possible without the Web as he had come to call it.

And now, he thought looking silently down at the book in front of him that held all of his collected research into something he was sure would help him keep the ravages of the Cataclysm from affecting the magic of this Valley, I am ready to start. His plan was easy after learning from Urtho's memories how to create creatures he had spent months designing one that would help him in making a working Heartstone. A creature he called a Fairy after the creatures of legends and of course Tinker bell, it would be able to merge with him and keep him grounded during the process so he wouldn't be swept away in the node directly beneth his tower.

Standing silently Alex picked up the thick green leather book and carrying it with him he walked around his solid oak desk to exit the simple door of his office and primary work room. Walking down the silent corridors of his Tower his mind drifted back to when he had been younger and him and Jessie had read the Mage Wars books dreaming of being as powerful as Urtho the two of them had spent hours trying to decide what they would make their Towers look like if they were Mages like Urtho. In truth the Dragon design was Jessie's, it was a way for Xander to honor his fallen friend though the Tower was empty as Alex mostly lived in the top floor the rest he planned to house his library of books he had already started collecting most written by his own hand of his various experiments. The underground part of the tower though had been designed for Workroom's his primary sharing space with his office had the tightest shielding he could weave together and was constantly upgraded as he found better or stronger ways to do things.

The secondary Workroom, the one he was headed to right now, was at the very bottom of his Tower being about twenty feet underground carved out of the same crystal the rest of the Tower was made of, the only way into the room was from a hidden door in the wall behind his large bed and the place he was planning on putting the focus of the Heartstone. Sending out a call through the stone around him as he stepped off the last stair into the Work room he stared around at it. It was a large room easily large enough to fit a football field inside and right in the middle of the room a five foot tall pillar of the hardest stone he could find was capped with a pure diamond that he had burned the impurities out of himself. This was important the magic of this time was tamer than what was described in the books but there was more of it and the slightest impurity could kill him in a fiery explosion that might just start the Cataclysm early.

Hearing a noise the Mage who hadn't aged a day since he started learning magic looked up and grinned and the fairy, a small humanoid that reminded him of Tinker bell with her blonde hair, size and the green dress she was wearing. "Hello, little one," He said letting her land on his shoulder as he smiled at her, "How is your tribe?"

"They are well, Creator." The small fairy said hugging the side of his neck. "Is your project ready?" she asked looking around at the one room in the Tower she had never seen before. Her tribe had moved out of the Tower soon after they had been created wanting to show their Creator that they could take care of themselves and he didn't have to worry about them, but she came into the Tower every chance she got. She knew all the rooms like the back of her hands having explored the place as much as she could with the others playing hide and seek in the many hidden passages, they had free run of the whole tower so long as they didn't damage anything past fixing and stayed out of this room and his other Workrooms when he was busy, for their own safety some of his experiments with node-energy had backfired explosively.

"Yes," he said simply reaching out with his mind to connect with hers and reveling in the feeling of being one with the earth below and all around them,: _I am not sure how long this will take, but with your help nothing should go wrong.: _He told her mentally sending across what she needed to do before turning to the pillar and calming his mind.

Linking with the diamond he turned his attention to the node below him and reached out to meld with it slowly not wanting to rush even these simple parts. Slowly, sweat beading on his forehead; he _pulled _with all his strength. This was the hardest part of the process, while people had been touching and using node-energy for years that only involved connecting to it and allowing it to fill you while controlling the flow. Moving a part of the node was something that had long been deemed impossible once some of the Adepts that had tried had burned themselves out, becoming mindless husks or simply burning the Mage-Gift out of their bodies. None lived long after something like that, it was almost impossible for a Mage to live without their Gift, simply because the ability to feel the Magic around them and not feel the rush of channeling it drove most of them to suicide quickly. The closest they had ever come was Permanent Gates where you had to tie the Gate Spell to both the node and the doorway, it was more complicated then that but then what wasn't.

His theory, though it hadn't been proven, was that they had not been able to direct the energy and keep themselves grounded at the same time, causing them to lose control of the flow and drown in the energy burning through their bodies. That is why he had made the Fairies. He worked alone so he did not have other Mages around him to hold him nor did he have a Companion so he created something that could serve the same purpose.

Finally managing to get the energy where he wanted it he tied it to the crystal and started weaving. Hours later he flopped back on the bare floor behind him utterly drained. It was remarkably similar to the process of tying off a Permanent Gate except in that case the channel to power the spell could only hold one spell, the Gate Spell, this one, he thought as he studied it with his senses was more complicated and less at the same time. Permanent Gates were created by grabbing a very small amount of power from the node and weaving it into the Gate Spell tying it to an arch of appropriate size and stopping the spell at just the moment when it would normally reach out for the destination. Stopping that Spell once it got started was sometimes harder to do then to stop an avalanche it took more willpower than many Mages even Great Adepts were capable of, though after this, Xander thought to himself as he rested his eyes while laying on the remarkably comfortable stone ignoring the calls of the irritating little fairy fluttering around him, I will never complain about Gates again the weaving required for a Heartstone was so complicated it wasn't really a surprise that only the Tayledras could do it in the future.

Dragging himself up off the floor he staggered over to the stairs and started to slowly drag himself up them not even bothering to try and climb to his feet just crawling ungracefully up stair after stair, blessing the gods that nobody from the village would see him like this. They all had this vision of him being some super mage and crawling up a set of stairs really would hurt that reputation. Finally making it up the hellish stairs he looked blearily around his room for a second before his silver-blue eyes locked onto his large silk bed and he stumbled over to it before allowing himself the luxury of falling into it unconscious before his head hit the pillow.

In another land far away buried in a mountain scape Great Adept Urtho, called the Mage of Silence, snapped his head to the south causing his subordinates who had been reporting to him about a mission they just came back from to cut off in midword staring at the Mage as his eyes glazed over as his senses boggled at the amount of magic being thrown around just out of reach of his senses.

"M-My Lord?" one of the men stuttered.

"Yes?" the elder mage asked semi-calmly his eyes still glued to where he felt the magic still pulsing frustratingly still seeming to be just out of reach of his senses.

"Is something wrong, my Lord?" the Kaled'a'in Amberdrake asked in his soothing way.

"One of the neutrals is doing something very powerful, but it's too far away for me to sense what they are actually doing." Urtho stated matter-of-factly. "Send for Skandranon."

"My lord?" one of the officers asked somewhat timidly if you asked Urtho's opinion though with the amount of power he could feel being thrown around to the west he really couldn't blame the man he would be gibbering in fear of what could happen if Ma'ar got his hands on whatever or whoever was making such a ripple in the magical field.

"Yes, Captain?" the Adept asked mildly trying to calm the men down with his example.

"Begging your pardon, my Lord, but how can you be sure that it is one of the neutrals? It could be Ma'ar or one of his henchmen!" the man practically exploded at the end his fright not at all calmed by his lord's act.

"Too far away and if Ma'ar had a weapon of this kind of power the war would be over long since." the Adept replied bluntly dropping all pretenses.

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**A/N: alright I tried to make it better not sure if it is better or just longer lol will try to keep updating it but I dont have a lot of time between work and training so will do what I can. This is what I have so far havent split them into seperate chapters but the rest should be one chapter per update.**


	2. Chapter 4: Meetings and New Wards

**The Black Adept**

**Chapter 4: Meetings and Idiots Making Waves**

"Good afternoon, _kestra'chern_ Amberdrake and Skandranon. It is a pleasure to meet people as well spoken of as you two." Xander said as he walked calmly into the formal meeting hall nodding politely to Urtho's two ambassadors, his eyes wandering around the room.

It was actually fairly plain for a formal room consisting mostly of a large oak table carved to resemble a large snake scale, or rather a small dragon scale. As in almost every room of his tower the fairies had carved murals into the walls these depicting a fairy tale forest straight out of some crazy writers dreams. They had somehow, and he suspected their brand of magic, managed to make the mural so real that the trees and impossible looking animals looked like they were literally going to jump out of the wall and snack on some innocent mage that just so happened to be in the way.

Kinda creepy actually now that he thought about it. _Hmm, wonder if they were going for intimidating? Cause if that's the case it's working these two look like they expect me to eat them alive any second._

"My lord, the pleasure is ours." Amberdrake said making an attempt at a diplomatic smie as he carefully kept his mind, and eyes, off the pictures on the wall, though he noticed that Skandranon was eyeing one of the carvings as if he was about to challenge it to a fight.

Xander nodded at the politeness as he set a packet of papers on his end of the table sitting at the large padded chair found there an exact match to every other chair in the room and more comfortable then they looked.

"I know what your lord sent you here for and while the notion is interesting I am afraid that having spoken with my people we are not at this time open to an alliance. My kingdom is in the middle of settling in and growing as a people. While it is true that we have grown to a fairly good size in the years since I settled here we have not even set up a formal army or border defenses of a physical type instead of just my wards. We can not at this time afford to get caught up in a war." Xander paused to take in the two's disappointed faces raising a hand to stop them from talking as the gryphon opened his beak.

"Regardless of arguments these facts will not change. First, I can't afford to send you an army I don't have, and second I can't go with you to help as I am needed here to defend my people. Yes I have trained several good mages but none of them I feel are ready to face war. Now having said all of that I have here all the information my people and I have gathered on your enemy including several spies that he has planted within your ranks."

"There are-" Skandranon started to protest before the _kestra'chern _settled a hand on his shoulder to get him to stop.

"We thank you for anything that you are able to do, but doesn't the very fact that you have that information say that you have spies within our ranks as well? Why should we trust any information that you give us to be true?" Amberdrake asked reasonably.

"You can't trust that it is true but you can check the facts my people included the evidence they gathered in this packet. That said I told you that I won't help either side in your war after this and I have no plans to all of my people have pulled out of both sides of this conflict and they will not be sent back in. The information is current as of last week, but I am afraid after this point you are on your own. I would like to tell you to take a very close look at the report at the top of the pile." Xander responded pushing the packet of files across to Amberdrake.

"Conn Levas?" Amberdrake asked looking at the top paper incredulously.

"Yes, him and now I am afraid I will have to escort you out. If you would like I can gate you closer to your destination but I am afraid I have busy day scheduled today so it will have to be quickly before I get caught up." Xander said standing from his chair and gesturing them towards the door.

"Yes, of course." Amberdrake said closing the folder as he patted Skan on the flank. The gryphon had been told to keep quiet during this meeting to observe the other mage and he had been struggling to keep his beak shut on his protests all night though he could tell that the mage really wished he could help them in their war.

Xander nodded and swept down the hall his waterfall patterned robe flaring behind him making it look like the water was actually flowing as he moved quickly through the halls to his office a few stories up in the tower nodding to the people that had decided his tower needed to be guarded while there were guests within the tower.

Xander help the large oak door of his office open as the two entered. Closing the door he crossed the room swiftly to his desk moving a few things out of his way so he could sit on the edge ignoring the pile of paperwork that had somehow become his responsibility when more and more people decided that they wanted to be a part of his kingdom. A kingdom that had grown to about half the size of California back home, not that these two were aware of the real size of his lands.

"Are you two ready?" Xander asked and seeing the nods turned to the door they had just entered his concentration narrowing slightly as he quickly wove the portal the doorway seeming to fade out before with a flash of something like fire it opened up to a new destination.

The tree looked at the new view the other two with panic and Xander with a feeling of frustration rapidly building its way towards a panic before he throttled that feeling down as one of the men in the image spun mage-lightning flashing towards the gate as the man took off out of the doorway.

Xander frowned as the lightning faded against the wards of his office there was a reason he opened gates to potentially hostile areas to his office. It was one of the most well warded rooms in the building. Watching as the two fled through the Gate to the injured mage on the other side Xander shook his head as he realized he was entirely too late with his warnings. Bowing his head in apology Xander shook himself out of it as Amberdrake turned back to the still open portal.

"Can't you do something to help him?" The man practically shouted his emotions finally breaking out of the fine control he usually kept them in for his clients.

"No." was the answer to his question though it didn't come from Xander. "He can't." Urtho continued weakly.

"Miranda Thorns?" Xander asks as if he didn't already know.

The other mage nodded weakly as Xander closed his eyes remembering the pain caused by those thorns in his own skin. "Nothing I or any other mage does will work." Xander recalled. "Magic used on the thorns would actually make the problem worse."

Without another word Xander turned cutting his connection to the tower not wanting to watch that happen more then he already was through his memories as he took off out of his office at a dead sprint. Running into a room at the exact center of the Tower on the ground floor Xander paused in his headlong flight as he stared at the veritable crowd of people within the room he was sure was going to be empty.

"We felt your unease and that you were heading here. We know what you designed this room for." The first student he had ever trained said as the man stepped forward no longer such a young man the son of the first man he had met in this time gave a wan smile as he studied his adopted uncle. A hurried gesture took in the almost forty people in the room all his students and their apprentices "We want to help."

Nodding Xander made a gesture for a circle as he stepped in the middle. "Your job is two-fold." Xander paused staring in each of their eyes as he turned to see them. "This is not make work what you are doing is both saving me the effort of doing it myself while I work and making my work more powerful. You will need to hold the old wards together until the new ones come up and shield this room and everyone in it from any backlashes. What I am doing I have been working on for years, it has never been done before and I don't truly know if it can be done. If this works though we will never have to worry about what magic outside of our borders no matter how powerful could do to our people."

The mages all nodded minds flashing back to the slaughter that had taken place no more then a year before when Kiyamvir Ma'ar had managed to sneak two Adept-class mages through the wards that protected a small town near his borders. Though a few smiled grimly as they remembered what the retaliation of their lord had cost both those mages personally and the man who had sent them as he took his anger out on every troop Ma'ar had within his extensive reach.

"Begin!" was all he said as he folded his legs under him losing himself in the bonds he had to his creations as he called to them throughout his lands.

"Earth!" He mumbled as he found the bonds connecting him to the fairy queen and her people who froze all fluttering to the ground within the forest where they had carved their intricate home throughout all the trees. He smiled proud of how his children had grown.

"Fire!" was his next word as his mind connected to the four dragons he had created when they started calling him the Black Dragon, though they were jewel toned, not Black. They also stilled great heads turning to face the Tower as they closed their eyes concentrating on their father. The mage slowed slightly sending congratulations as he felt that both females were expecting clutches the eggs already laid in a warm nest at the heart of their mountain lairs.

"Air!" He said as the other two links solidified in his mind and he moved on to the next set. Great Eagles perched on mountain sides and thick trees as they turned their attention to the one who gave birth to their ancestor.

"Water!" he called feeling the next set of bonds settle into place. He smiled as the last set settled and he felt himself connect deeper with his own magic and that of his Heartstone. With his children keeping him grounded he let everything else fade as he took a breath and then started to Weave.

The Heartstone and his children purred in his mind as they felt his delight building even as protections never seen before sealed his kingdom from the outside world ensuring even as the Cataclysm washed over the world outside breaking magic and spewing it evenly all over the world the magic within his lands shuddered briefly before settling down normally.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (More than a week later)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Xander groaned as his eyes fluttered open staring in confusion at the ceiling of a room he recognized as his personal bedroom. Pushing himself up on his elbows he stared around at the room wondering how he had gotten there. Last he remembered he had been tying the last knot in his new protections, then blackness.

Looking up as his door slammed open Xander quirked a tired smile as he watched the matronly women bustle in. "It has been awhile since you have had to patch me up, Mother Reader." Xander commented watching the woman jump putting a wrinkled hand to her bust.

"Well look at what you have gone and done to yourself this time, my lord." The woman mock scolded as she bustled over green magic flaring wildly over her hands, pausing to frown at the magic around her hands before she concentrated smoothing it out before touching him.

He stared at what he could see of her hands wondering what was going on, never before had he seen her have any trouble controlling her magic, she had been practicing magic longer then he had and while she had considerably less magic than him she also had better control.

Seeing his look the Healer shook her head wryly. "Whatever you did when you wove those new protections has magic jumping wildly all over the kingdom, Mages have been having to concentrate especially hard to get the smallest things to work. Though the Adepts tell us that the most powerful of magicks go off with hardly any effort." She reported matter-of-factly as she finished checking him over.

"You have been out for a month." She said correctly guessing his next question as she strode to the door and with a whispered sentence sent one of the guards that had insisted on stationing themselves outside the door while their Lord was incapacitated. "They haven't reported this, but they are going silver faster now as well even doing the small magicks now is as likely to give you another strand or two of silver than not."

Raising an eyebrow as the Mage stared at her long-silvered hair trying to find a difference, she shook her head in exasperation. Giving him her patented ' your-an-idiot-stop-looking-at-me-like-that' glare.

Raising his hands in surrender, the mage froze with his hands in the air ignoring the people walking into the room with a tray full of food even with his stomach roaring out its protests for the world to hear. "A MONTH?!"

"Yes, a month and all of your students and your 'children' have been stopping by at least once a day to check on you since you and the rest passed out when the new protections snapped into place. The others woke up after a week complaining about being confined to bed and wanting to check on you. They have all been long cleared and back to work, they have checked over the new protection though none of them have any idea what you did and they don't know if there is anything wrong with them. They said they have never seen anything like it."

Xander nodded. "I made it up out of bits and pieces of stories I heard where I lived before I came here and I'll admit from whole cloth, I honestly wasn't sure if it was going to work." The mage shrugged as she gave him a horrified look. "It was the best chance to keep our lands and magicks the way they have always been. I have told you about what I remember of the books written about Urtho's war the description of the Cataclysm, you have no idea what it was like remembering what those books said and knowing I would be living through that."

Mother Reader stared at her lord in wonder as his eyes showed his past desperation. "Well, whatever you did worked." She assured him quickly wanting to move on having never seen him less than composed since he had first arrived, carried into her office in Graff's arms like a babe. "The Cataclysm rages outside of our borders even now with not a twitch within our lands. Magic hums happily as a babe in arms and is more powerful now than ever. Even us hedgewitchs and wizards are powerful enough to be counted as Masters."

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**A/N: Okay so I listened to my reviews and I hope that I covered most of the stuff that you all reviewed about I will probably work this way from now on though honestly updates will probably be sporadic I will try to post a chapter then review it and update a hopefully better chapter covering mostly the same thing. Anyway, tell me what you guys and gals think of this chapter I thought Xander was a little too confrontational in the old one. He's a little short with them in this one and quick to cut the Gate off but I saw the Miranda Thorns **(which I got out of wiki) **as close to Leech Blades in thorn form not safe for a powerful mage to try and remove.**


	3. Chapter 5: Hounds and Deals

**The Black Adept**

**Chapter 5: Hounds and Deals**

Xander sighed contentment radiating from his form as he crouched patting a simple seed into the soft, moist soil. This is what he lived for not the hours spent holed up with his 'newly' appointed council going over laws and various other things that went with ruling a kingdom that had grown to nearly the size of Nevada. Simple experiments with magic were the things he loved.

Standing up Xander concentrated hands raising shoulder height in front of him directly over the seed he had just planted. Slowly carefully Xander let the increasingly wild power of his Heartstone flood from his palms watching carefully as it began to bath the seed in it's invisible to the naked eye radiance. At first nothing seemed to happen and the time locked mage nodded as if this was the result he had expected. After all magic was life the most it should have done was grow the seed into a small tree.

As if taking the nod as permission the seed began to grow slow at first and then swifter as the seconds rolled on and without moving Xander stared no longer even paying attention to the magic he was still pouring into the tree except to make sure that it didn't threaten him, not the he expected it to the personality of the Heartstone seeing the mage as something of a big brother had no intention of hurting him.

The mage watched stunned not reacting as he felt one of his students and a strange mage walking up behind him. For the tree wasn't the simple pine he had been expecting from the seed he planted but something new. Seemingly made from gems even the fruit hanging off the branches looked like apple sized rubies with leaves of emeralds and a trunk of crystal. Nodding to himself as the tree reached a height of ten feet the mage cut off the flow of magic watching with satisfied awe as the new tree finally stopped growing.

"What can I do for you, Jasen?" The mage asked turning to look at the teen mage behind him.

"My Lord," The younger mage started forcing awe out of his voice as he stared up at the sparkle of his Lord's newest experiment. "This mage and a small retinue pounded on the gates a little bit ago demanding to speak to you."

"Very well," Xander replied turning to the brown haired mage in travel stained robes with a nod of his head as a bow. "How may I help you-"

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

The mage chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief as he watched the Adept turn to him. The mage before him was completely unshielded as if he had no fear of being attacked in this place. In the normal course of things he would not dare to attack an Adept-class mage let alone one that was as powerful as his former master.

This time though after creating that tree and without access to the now broken web of magic an Adept wasn't quite as special as it used to be and this particular Adept , while he used to be quite famous for the innovations he and his students had made with magic (that they never shared outside their school) was almost completely unshielded. It wasn't really a surprise to Joln every Adept class Mage teacher he had had gone on and on about the types of magic that absolutely had to be done unshielded or they would fail and Joln was pretty sure whatever he did with that tree was one of them.

Launching a fire ball the size of a horse at the Adept Joln turned, confident of having taken down the unshielded mage, throwing mage lightning at the student mage who had escorted him down here. A mere Journeyman Mage stood no chance against a Master.

Joln was shocked when the Journeyman didn't even pause as he reflected the mage lightning back on its originator forcing him to cut off his own spell with a wordless snarl of frustration. There was unlikely to be a lot of time for him to escape once it was discovered that he had killed the Adept and he really didn't have time to spare on this Journeyman.

"Give up, Journeyman, you have no chance." He growled trying to sound menacing. He was unaware that those listening thought he sounded constipated as he was trying to make a threat.

"_cough"_

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Xander shook his head staring at the idiot Master class as the mage turned slowly to face him in response to his bid for attention.

"It is not often that you run across a Master willing to attack an Adept class mage let alone one with the distinction of Sorcerer Adept." Xander commented idly directing his comment to the Journeyman Mage who had paused with lethal looking magic dancing in his palms waiting to flay his arrogant attacker.

"Perhaps, my Lord, he has not yet heard that you are a Sorcerer Adept?" The younger man rejoined shaking his hands to dispel the obviously no longer needed magic dancing there sparks flying harmlessly through the air in a shower of red-orange magic.

Xander shook his head in negation not taking his eyes off Joln as he debated what to do with his attacker. "No his mind shields are horrible he knew exactly who he was attacking. Or at least he knew what anyone outside our kingdom knows about my powers."

Nodding his head Xander stood up straighter staring his attacker in the eyes. "I have no time to take out of my day to crush you in a duel." Xander said evenly his tone conveying how easy he considered that task; As if it wasn't even possible for the other mage to put up even a token fight. "Demands on the time of even a Mage-King are always high therefore I leave you to my hounds."

Throwing his head back, Xander let out a baying howl that raised the hairs on the body of anyone who heard it. Not very long later a pack of twenty strange hounds pelted down the path leading towards a stand of woods that had once surrounded the whole town of Clear Valley and not served the capital by the same name as a smallish park. They were huge easily coming up to the moderately tall Xander's sternum and a steel grey color. In the place of fur the dogs had scales like some kind of snake with leaf shaped pointed ears.

"I did not make these hounds they were a gift from a mage who had managed to tame them when they were created by the mage storms near his tower that he had later been forced to retreat from when his wards collapsed." The Adept explained stroking the scaled head of the biggest of the hounds this one coming to just below his collar bone. "I will admit however to having given them a few upgrades. Natural, or Unnatural depending on your point of view, development for these Hounds needed a bit of a kick in the pants when it came to them, you see. At least for the uses I eventually decided to put them to."

Joln wasn't sure what to think as he watched a drop of sickly red liquid drip off the abnormally large fang of the Hound the Adept was stroking as if it was a small puppy playing in his lap. Indeed as he watched the hounds acted much like puppies for the other mage cavorting around his heels almost knocking him off his feet several times as they wrestled around him.

"I think you should run now." Journeyman Jasen recommended moving away from the other mage so as not to be between him and the Hounds.

With a whistle Xander got the attention of the Hounds those leaf like ears of their perked up as the Adept began to talk to them in a flowing musical language that Joln had never heard though he could guess some of what it must have meant as the hounds turned their heads to stare at him hungrily. "You have ten minutes to be gone before they start chasing you," Xander said as if he was talking about the weather. "Once ten minutes are up they will begin to track you. Run, hide if you like, but you will never be able to escape my Hounds."

Having said his piece Xander motioned Jasen to follow him as he turned down the path leading back to his tower having dismissed the other man from his mind.

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Joln sneered ball lightning forming in his hand before flashing out to strike one of the silver hounds. _How dare that stupid Adept walk away as if I am not a thr-_. The Mage's mind froze as the lightning glanced off the Hounds thick hide and struck a tree. Panic starting to set in the Master Mage danced around as he tossed every kind of magic he could think of at each of the Hounds failing to move even the smallest of the Hounds an inch from their crouched position their attention fixed on him as they ignored the lights glancing off their scales.

In a swirl of robes the mage turned running down the path he had been escorted down before hoping to make it to his horse before the Hounds began to chase him… there was no way they would be able to catch him from horseback. He would lose them and then never think about this cursed place again… his dead Lord was not worth getting eaten by Hounds over. Joln could have happily been bested by the other mage in a duel or battle the adept out-classed him in both power and training his only hope had been a quick unexpected strike at an unshielded moment.

Reaching where his horse was tied up without anyone stopping him, which if he had paid attention he would have seen people scrambling to get out of his way not trying to hinder him at all. A quickly cast spell had the reins free and in his grasp as he jumped on his horses back galloping out through the gates again without challenge, which he considered very lucky, maybe he had escaped before the Lord could order them to lock him in with the Hounds.

Let's not ruin his delusions by mention that really no one wanted to get between those Hounds their Lord had been so proud of. They had seen what that pack had done to a cow they had been set on and had no intention of having them mistake one of them for their prey.

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Guard Captain Sondusean stared as a man galloped into town looking half dead even as he stared fearfully over his shoulder at something that he couldn't see even standing as he was on a small gate that sheltered his little town as best it could from the bandits that roamed every land these days even with the Mage Storms still raging. "Close the Gates!" he called down to the Guardsman standing in the road.

The Guard Captain swore as every dog in the town began to howl all at once scaring him into almost falling off the wall, though that was one small detail that wouldn't make it into his report at the end of his shift. The Captain stiffened every instinct he possessed telling him to run and hide as the bell like baying of some sort of animal sounded from the over the horizon.

Hearing an equine scream the Guard turned his head to see that the horse had fallen, its rider sprawling out over the road. He was just about to order one of the Guardsmen to open the gate the words halfway out of his mouth before the baying sounded again and the rider leapt to his feet as if he had never fallen from the horse running not towards the town as anyone else would have but for a stand of trees more than a mile away.

He had learned in the weeks he had been running the walls of a town would not stop those Hounds anymore then his magic had when he had first tried or any of the other times he had tried to shelter with a mage sympathetic to his old master. Neither the highest or strongest walls nor the most powerful wards would stop these hounds for long.

Captain Sondusean almost screamed as a pack of hounds broke over the horizon even from a distance he could tell those dogs were huge and strange.

"He will not escape." The Captain heard beside him.

With a startled jump Sondusean dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword staring at the old man that had come to stand on the wall next to him. "What do you mean?" He asked as calmly as he could as his heart tried to beat its way out of his chest.

"I can feel the magic emanating off of those hounds from here and you know I am not a mage. I have Seen." The old man said as calmly as possible. "He attacked the Father of Dragons in his den and the Father Dragon set his Hounds on the mage as a punishment and a warning."

"Warning?" The Guard asked feeling sick and trying not to show it to his men who were still on the wall watching the macabre scene.

"If you knew that attacking the Father of Dragons would result in you getting chased down by those Hounds, that surely came from one or all of the seven Hells, would you still attack him? That mage down there didn't even scratch the Black Dragon." The Gifted old man said gesturing down at the mage that had turned with a blade in one hand and magic sparking uselessly around the other.

Bowing his head the Gifted man turned and made his way down from the wall as the mage began throwing spells as the pack of hounds closed in on him. "Hounds from the Hells, indeed." Sondusean said quietly as he watched the huge Hounds mow down the mage not having taken a single casualty from the lethal spells the man had been throwing around. Bowing his head and sending a prayer to the Goddess for the poor man's soul, the Guard Captain turned and made his way off the wall… this called for drink in quantities he had rarely consumed before.

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"So what can I do for the Star-Eyed?" Xander asked casually as he leaned back in his chair staring at a seemingly empty point in the air of his office.

"**You have become very powerful if you can sense me when I do not want to be seen**." The Goddess stated giving the impression of a raised eyebrow though her faced never twitched.

Xander shook his head with a smile. "The Wards alert me when power that they can't absorb crosses them and the Heartstone can keep track of any magic that enters its sphere of influence which if anywhere under the Wards. So you see nothing to do with power only a good alert system. So how can I help the _kaled'a'in _ Goddess?" Xander asked while subtly trying to remind her that he was not one of her worshipers. He didn't really have a divine being that he worshiped his parents had never exactly been good Christians and Urtho was more a scholar than a spiritualist.

The Goddess nodded with a smile. "**I wish to make a deal with you, Alexander Harris, known as the Black Dragon and the Father of Dragons along with many other titles**."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what a humble Sorcerer could offer to a Goddess." Xander smiled his self-deprecating grin at the Goddess.

"**Humble?**" The Goddess asked with a small smile to which he could only grin. "**I wish to teach my people how to make a stone like yours as they have been given the duty to fix magic as best they can as the man they swore allegiance to was the one who broke it in the first place.**"

"I had wondered where you got the information in order to teach them that." Xander mumbled She may be a Goddess but a Goddess does not use magic in a way that a human would be able to understand and would therefore not have the easiest time trying to teach a mortal magic.

The Goddess bowed her head in acknowledgement. Every Divine Being alive and many no longer alive as their worshipers died out knew that the Adept she was currently speaking to had traveled thousands of years through time to get to this point.

Bowing his head in thought Xander stared at the stone top of his desk. Finally the mage nodded, "The method I used will no longer work, magic has changed much in the years since I created my little brother." He said referring to the personality that had almost fully matured due to all the magic the wards had absorbed from the mage storms. "I have however written and tested a method that does work with how magic currently is. The Stone was destroyed once I knew it worked Chamim really does not like competition for my favor…"

The Goddess chuckled having watched from afar as the Heartstone whined to the Mage it saw as an older brother/ father figure. "**Very well, if you are willing to provide me with the memories needed to duplicate that feat I have been given permission to grant you the one magic that has eluded all your efforts.**"

Becoming excited the Sorcerer bounced in his chair a little looking like an eager puppy. "You really mean?"

"**Yes, there will be a few side effects that are unavoidable but none of them are bad .**" The Goddess responded.

"Done!" Xander practically yelled hoping She wouldn't change her mind before the deal was done.

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**A/N: Should be the last chapter in Cata next will probably be Vanyel's time. Maybe I'll even put in the Gift the Goddess offered Xander for the Heartstone memories. Maybe someone can guess it for a virtual cookie lol.**


	4. Chapter 6: Dealing with Stolen Property

**Black Adept**

**Chapter 6: Dealing with Stolen Property**

**Disclaimer: If you think I own this stuff well the 'plot' non existant as that is and my own little additions sure the rest? Belong to people that make actual money for it.**

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"Sit circulus creari igne, terra, aer, aqua et cordis. Dico circulum esse." The disembodied chant echoed through the clearing freezing the occupants in place. Fog rolled into the destroyed clearing obscuring sight for but moments before it cleared and all could see five strange ethereal beings surrounding the pack of _wyrsa _summoned by the teenage Mage currently standing with another in front of a gate.

Over and over the beings chanted that line as purple light flared up around them shooting out a line at a time to connect the five in a strange symbol of a star surrounded by a circle cutting both them and the pack of doglike _wyrsa_.

Brighter and brighter the light flared as the five sang their chant louder and louder the words ringing through the clearing so full of power that even those that had been running away from the danger of the pack stopped to watch. The whole tableau seemed frozen and all around the clearing eyes closed as the light suddenly flared the chant reaching a crescendo before gradually fading away.

Xander gave a sad sigh stepping away from the pack that had been a gift to him from one of the few mages in his Kingdom that ever ventured out Kingdom any longer. Other than the one mage it had been hundreds of years since any of his people had bothered with the people beyond their Wards. Over the years as the Heart had gotten stronger and stronger the border protections had followed and these days the Kingdom of Valhayven as they had eventually decided to call it was hardly even connected to the outside world.

Very few knew of the existence of his Lands anymore as a result of this and there were few places that it was easy even for a mage of his caliber to break through. When he had felt one of the unaltered packs of _wyrsa_ his friend had given him disappeared he had gathered the Wardens to make sure the pack didn't cause any damage.

His attention was caught by the grief filled cry of the teen that had somehow managed to reach through Wards with enough power to blow up a sun and summon beings not meant to be summoned. '_I suppose I should just be glad that the kid didn't try and summon one of my mages. The disasters that could have happened with a teen that could control, or worse not control, one of my mages is ridiculous. Especially some of the older, grumpy ones.'_ The Mage-King thought with a mental shudder.

Turning his attention back to the pack caught up in all this trouble, Xander nodded to see the half dozen now stone dog-snakes, or is that snake-dogs, frozen in place cringing away from where the light had flared up around them.

Hearing an angry yell the Mage turned to the opposite side of the clearing as a man in fancy clothes stalked across the grass screaming words that he didn't understand at them as he waved his arms around. Tilting his head to the side the Mage turned to one of the Wardens his eyebrow raised wondering if he knew what the crazy man was on about.

Quirking a smile as he caught the thought his Lord sent him Sondosia, the Warden of the Watchtower of the North focused on the Outsider. "He demands to know what we are doing on his lands, my Lord. I get the impression he believes we are working with the ensorcelled teen that summoned these dogs." Tilting his head to the side the Mage looked at his Lord askance. "He and his family hired a Mage and Mercenaries to kill off the kids twin and whatever else they could of his lands."

Giving the man a dirty look Xander turned just in time to see a white, blue-eyed horse burst from the old fashioned gate screaming in equine defiance… right up until it saw the _wyrsa _ frozen in stone and the five extremely powerful mages standing around them looking at her like she was crazy.

"Greetings, Guardian-Spirit, you are somewhat late to the party." Xander said calmly in the language of his Kingdom.

_:Greetings, Lord of the Heartland. It has been many turns of the seasons since you last graced us with your presence outside the Heartland.:_ Gwena broadcast to the clearing. _:If you will give me a second to deal with my wayward Chosen, I will extend Valdemar's thanks for the disaster your people have helped end.:_

"Ah, little Guardian-Spirit, there are a few points that may interest you to know before you begin trying to 'deal with' your Chosen." Sondosia cut in after looking to Xander for permission.

Seeing the Horse tilt her head to the side in unmistakable curiousity the Northern Warden looked to his fellows before turning back to the Companion. "Your Chosen summoned a pack of _wyrsa_ newly gifted to my Lord by the Wanderer Lassim as he returned from his latest trip. I think he went to the pelagirs this time," He said looking to his Lord for confirmation and getting a nod back. "The interesting thing about it, Companion Gwena… he summoned them from within our borders. Not far within the borders granted but to be able to pierce even that far into our borders… no single mage could do it."

_:I see,: _ The Companion said slowly trying to draw herself a little time to process that before shaking it off as the boy drawing from Vanyel's power as he did to make the gate. All eyes turned back to the gate as four mages galloped out on Companion back lightning leaping from their hands at the _wyrsa_, and coincidentally at the five mages still arranged around them, not bother to look at more then the presence of the pack or take in the fact that they weren't moving.

_:NO!:_ Gwena screamed to the world as she saw the lightning heading for the leaders of a Kingdom that could wipe them all off the face of the earth without batting an eyelash.

Equine sceams rang through the clearing as the Companions got a good look at where the magic of their riders was heading and planted hooves in the dirt in a futile effort in a couple of cases sending their riders flying over their heads at the sudden stop.

Casually Xander reached out a hand slapping the lightning away from his group and destroying a tree across the clearing. Raising an eyebrow at the newcomers Xander cleared his throat. "Perhaps you should look closer before you start throwing lethal magic around." The Black Adept admonished before turning back to the Companion they had been talking to before.

"The other thing," Sondosia continued calmly when his Lord nodded at him. "The boy is under the influence of a subtle curse. Low powered probably set from a distance though no less powerful for that." Turning to the others he asked in his own language. "Chadassa, you are the best of the Wardens at sensing this type of magic what can you tell me about it?"

The Warden of the Eastern Watchtower tiled his his head to the side his long silky blonde hair swaying as he studied the teenager curled up in a ball where he collapsed after seeing the ruin of his revenge. "It is very subtle," he started as Sondosia started to translate for the rest in the clearing. "In fact, if the boy hadn't been almost completely drained by the effort it took to summon the pack I wouldn't even have noticed it. I don't recognize the signature of the caster but it is designed to heighten any emotion the target feels once it is applied."

"It is a very easy spell to deflect and in fact the natural defenses of any mage with potential higher than… Master? Journeyman? I do not know what they call it out here, would cancel it out. One would have to cast it when the defenses are lowered by something… usually great emotion. Once it sticks to a target it is almost impossible to detect, because the natural magic a mage gives off would overwhelm what little trace it would give off. Should be simple to get it off once detected though."

Xander walked slowly over to the teen his ornate robes the swirls of colors somehow tricking the eye into seeing a beautiful emerald waterfall as he moved though when he was stationary it just looked like random splashes of color. Kneeling down next to the curled up teen mage his ankle length hair somehow fanning out behind him perfectly the Mage-Lord stroked the boy's head his expression sympathetic. "Poor little mage," He said in his own musical sounding language. "used and abused past your own limits by your enemies. All this grief on top of a broken twin bond. Possumne in Cor advigilandum tibi sicut movere per his tentationibus, parvus, confide in vita vestra-coniugem."(2)

Finished with his blessing and advice Xander stood gracefully moving back over to his people as one of the Valdemaren mages groaned sitting up from where he had been tossed to the ground by his bucking Companion.

The man looked around finally noticing that the pack of _wyrsa_ they had attacked seemed to be frozen in mid-motion, the Queen's Own stood brushing off his formal Whites with a second groan just so the world would know how much he appreciated being thrown off a moving Companion. Eyes sweeping over the entire clearing in a second the second highest ranking Herald in the Kingdom took in the frozen _wyrsa_ again before turning to stare at the five ethereal beings standing together a few feet from the crumpled but still breathing form of Savil's apprentice, not that he could tell that from where he was standing but the boy's Companion seemed to be standing pretty calmly next to the boy so it was almost guaranteed he was alright.

Studying the five his first impression was _Power, _yesit deserved the capital letter. All five wore ornate robes most of them depicting an elemental event; volcano, tornado, typhoon, and rockslide. The fifth's robe seemed to be just random splashes of color that somehow managed to not look tacky though the consummate politician thought it should. Each had hair of a different color though only one had the silver hair of an Adept it was obvious even to him that all five were at that classification or maybe even above that if the respect to Companions were showing to them was any indication.

Watching as the silver haired one spoke to Kellan in some strange musical tounge gesturing at the almost prostrate figure of the other teen in the clearing the older , he thinks anyway, male frowned before making his way over to the teen to check on him.

Xander smirked as the oldest of the four 'rescuers' walked over to check on the kid he had just gestured at. He raised an eyebrow as the man yelled for the only woman of the four and she came running laying a hand on the kids' undoubtedly hot forehead. He watched as they argued back and forth for a few minutes though it was obvious that neither really had any clue what to do.

_:Lord of the Heartland?:_ Xander turned to the taller male Guardian-Spirit in horse form with a raised eyebrow. _:My name is Rolan.:_ The Companion responded seeing the unspoken question in the Mage-Lord's eyes. _:My Chosen wonders if there is anything you can do to help the boys and if you can tell us what the safest way to disconnect the boy from the gate is… no one wants him hurt and you are the most knowledgeable in gates.:_

The two cheerfully ignored the stunned look on the faces of all the Heralds as Xander answered. "We no longer use this form of Portal, young one," he ignored the voice of his Northern Watchtower as the man translated into the language he had dragged from the, currently unconscious from backlash, mind of the first man they had seen that night. "From my experience however, because the boy did not weave the Portal himself, he is not a mage, and it has been open far too long with too many going through it. It would be safer for the boy to just shut it down. We can provide you transportation to your Grove once it is shut down. This is the safest course but I am afraid that no matter what you do right now the boy will experience some backlash from the very nearly rogue Portal. It will probably blast his mage-gift potential wide open… painfully."

_:There is no way to avoid this?: _ Rolan sent his despair at the pain of the innocent young man.

"Sadly no, not even if I had two hundred of my most powerful mages rather than just the five of us the gate is too far gone and the backlash being gate energy will move much too quickly for even my own reaction speed."

**A/N: I think this chapter has gone okay but it's 1am and I can't type anymore lol I will try to continue it quicker than I usually do but we will just have to see how much time I have **** hope you all like it.**

**(1)** "Sit circulus creari igne, terra, aer, aqua et cordis. Dico circulum esse."- "Let there be a circle to be created by the fire, the earth, the air, the water, and of the heart. I call the circle into being."

**(2) **"Possumne in Cor advigilandum tibi sicut movere per his tentationibus, parvus, confide in vita vestra-coniugem." - "May the Heart watch over you as you move through these trials, little one, trust in your life-mate."


	5. Chapter 7: Further Discussion

**The Black Adept**

**Insert standard disclaimer here**

**Chapter 7: Further Discussions**

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Rolan bowed his silver head in acknowledgment. :_ I understand, Lord, and request that you do what you can._:

Nodding Xander moved over to the group of Heralds clustered around the teen taking in the frowns on the faces of his Mages he carefully asked in Valdemaren. "What is the problem, Chadassa?"

Nodding his at at Xander in deference the mage answered trying to keep his emotions from clouding his report. "The Heralds are under the impression that they should redirect this 'Portal' spell to someplace they call the Grove and then all tromp back through it before they shut it down."

Giving an incredulous look to the storm currently only being held back by the Air Wardens magic before transferring his gaze to the four human mages. "Are you out of your magic-damned minds?" he asked bluntly. Watching as the four took an uncertain step back at the anger in his voice he gave a small smile of satisfaction before continuing. "Do you have any idea whatsoever what the consequences could be for the teen currently being drained by that gate if you were to redirect it and then all of you and your … companions were to walk through it? You. Could. Kill. Him."

Taking an angry step forward Savil bit out. "I have been practicing magic since before you were born kid I think I know when a Gate is too far gone. The weather is not bad enough for this Gate to be anywhere near rogue."

Laughing Xander shook his head as he turned to the Warden of the East. Chadassa you can stop holding the storm back it looks like the delusional humans have not appreciated your help." Turning back to the Heralds and their Companions, Xander laughed at the shock on their faces as the previously mild storm suddenly raged into a near hurricane that sent the curious former victims of the attack scurrying as they tried to grab hold of everything the wind was blowing and retreat inside at the same time. Raising an eyebrow at the group he watched as the woman's tense stance slumped. "My people do not age as yours do and you are staring at five of the oldest of my people I can assure that I have been weaving magic far longer than your family line has lived in this area of the world and my experience tells me that Portal is too far gone for it not to kill the boy tied to it. Now if that isn't a problem for you, wonderful go on ahead with your plans. Just be prepared when the boy dies soon afterward followed by the other, cause they are tied together too tightly for you to cut them loose."

So saying Xander shook his head as he went to stand with the Wardens as he watched the expressions on their faces flicker their gazes firmly locked on the blue eyes of the Guardian-Spirits or whatever these people wanted to call them.

Finally the Queen's Own Lancir nodded turning to the five visitors. "I thank you for your help so far. Rolan has informed me that he asked you if you could solve our current predicament. Is such an offer still open?" The Herald tried to ask delicately as the others stood sheepishly behind him.

Nodding silently Xander walked toward the Gate pulling a necklace out from under his robes as he went. The Valdemaran Mages watched curiously as the key shaped object he revealed that seemed to glow with the force of a midday summer sun. inserting this object into the gate Xander's eyes went distant immediately as he began to concentrate the glow of the gate beginning to dim a few seconds later shocked all of them as the key seemed to be absorbing the Gate.

Even the Wardens were shocked they had never seen this key before. Then again they were significantly younger than their Lord by something close to two thousand years being the first of their people besides their leader to develop some approximation of immortality. Even they weren't entirely sure what the limits of his powers over magic if he had any at all. He wasn't worshiped by a few of their people as a God of Magic for nothing.

All around the clearing eyebrows raised as the Gate disappeared though most of them were distracted seconds later as the Key released a pulse which slammed into the two teenage mages before a cry of despair was even halfway contemplated by Herald-Mage Savil.

Xander bowed his head breathing heavily as his mages moved to surround him. Watching the mortals warily all the while as they wondered at the seeming effort he hd just expended they had never seen their Lord take any effort to cast any magic let alone something that didn't have his usual flash and flare type.

Giving him an enquiring look as the man finally stood up straight. "I know I told the damn horse I couldn't do anything about the backlash… I still couldn't help but try to contain it not that it worked." He said rubbing a burning spot where the magic had grazed him angrily on its way to the teens.

Nodding the four of them turned as one to watch as the others fussed over the teens.

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Finished assuring herself that the two teens were if not ok at least not dying in the next few moments, Savil moved closer to the group of foreign mages and gave a short bow to the one in the middle her companion having informed her of just who and what she had been so rude to earlier. "I wanted to thank you for your help and apologize for my earlier rudeness." The silver haired older mage said calmly. "The Companions say your warned them there may be a backlash. Without that warning they say they may not have been able to assist Gala in stabilizing the boys and grounding as much of the backlash as they could. We have been … informed that with all of our putting it off it was almost too much for them.

Nodding to the woman, Xander tilted his head to the side. "Is your group still interested in our offer of a ride back to your capital? I am not sure if you will wish to use a Portal spell again in this clearing."

"We have been threatened with various unspecified but unpleasant consequences if the Companions miss whatever method of transport you have for us." The mage replied with a wry shake of her head as she smoothed out her white tunic. "Though they have not told us what exactly it is, and the only method we know to travel magically is the Gate spell…"

Laughing, Chadassa replied for the group. "It is nothing special we were just planning to Flash you there with our elements. Though…" The mage trailed off with a look around the clearing ending with his gaze on Xander. "The method I know can only take one other being with me same with the others as far as I know."

Xander blinked at the other four for a second before shaking his head in realization. I forget sometimes that you four are so much younger than me. The five of us spend so much time together that I feel like you have been around since the beginning." Still shaking his head the Mage once more pulled the key from within the neckline of his robes.

Taking a few steps away from the group he knelt down and pushed the key through the ground the others weren't given long to wonder at this strange behavior as blue green light started to swirl around him on the dirt spreading out until it was a circle about ten feet across they blinked as the mage sank into the light. About five seconds later the Mage walked back out of the light as if he was ascending a set of stairs hidden within the light.

"We will be travelling through that." He said with a gesture at the circle. "It ends in a clearing in Companion's Field that Roland was kind enough to give me a visual of."

Savil nodded her mind wondering at both the spell and that a Companion had given him the visual for it, a being that normally wouldn't even to talk to someone outside another Companion or their Chosen for any reason.

Walking back over to the group of Heralds, Savil gestured at the open and nauseatingly still swirling relaying the little information that Xander had given her quickly in the interest of getting the two unconscious teens back to Haven as quickly as possible.

Xander watched as they approached the portal and paused debating the proper method of using it, listening to the one called Jaysen suggesting to jump in the mage decided to step in before they killed themselves. "If you all jump in at once on the otherside you will all land in the same place… on top of each other. Better to just walk through as if you were walking on level ground."

He nodded as the group walked through before he and the Wardens moved to follow.

**A/N: Lol someone pointed out to me that I had Gwena in the last chapter I haven't as of this moment but I figured I should tell you guys that it was meant to be Gala… that's how long it has been since I actually read the series and it was and still is my favorite series lol.**


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